Process for the manufacture of chenille yarn



Oct. 16, 1962 H. MAUERSBERGER ET AL PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CHENILLE YARN Filed May 26, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 fTTfIEEEEEEZIIIIII.-.%

INVENTO R 8 A'M/R/ch/ M40525 BEPfl-R 1962 H. MAUERSBERGER ETA]. 3,058,193

PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CHENILLE YARN Filed May 26, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR 3 flm/e/aw M40525 E5146 5/? ilnited rates Patent 3,058,193 PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CHENHILE YARN Heinrich Mauersberger, Limbach-Oberfrohna, and Heinz Kemter, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Germany, assignors to VEB Tiillmaschinenbau liiarl-Marx-stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt,

Germany Filed May 26, 1958, Ser. No. 737,689 9 Claims. (Cl. 2877) The present invention relates to a process for the manufacture of a novel chenille yarn, more particularly to a chenille yarn manufactured by sewing a longitudinal seam through an elongated base of textile material.

It is known to produce sewn chenille yarn by combining a plurality of pile threads by means of a sewing. Such chenille yarn has but little bulk and is thus limited in its application to certain purposes. Sewn chenille yarn, moreover, is expensive to manufacture because of the relatively complicated process involved.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a process for producing a sewn chenille yarn by means of sewing a seam in a fibrous base material which is inexpensive to produce, said process being simple and not requiring very elaborate equipment.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a process for making a chenille yarn which is more bulky than conventional sewn chenille yarn.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals designate like or analogous parts throughout the figures thereof and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a semi-schematic perspective view of a preferred apparatus for performing the process of the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates modified apparatus for performing the process of the invention in semi-schematic perspective view;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the knife roller of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows a plan view of an example of the novel chenille yarn of the invention having a central longitudinal seam;

FIG. 5 shows a chenille yarn of the invention having a seam meandering from one edge of the fibrous base to the other;

FIG. 6 shows a chenille yarn similar to that of FIG. 5, but having a seam wandering beyond the edges of the base;

FIG. 7 illustrates a perspective view of an intermediate stage in the manufacture of the chenille yarn of the invention from a fibrous material of longitudinally varying thickness; and

FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of an intermediate stage in the manufacture of chenille yarn from a fiber fleece having transverse filling like threads embedded therein.

Briefly, the novel chenille yarn made according to the invention comprises an elongated strip of non-woven fibrous web which can best be termed a fiber fleece and has a substantially longitudinal seam therein.

According to one embodiment of the process of the invention, a fiber fleece produced in a Well-known manner by a carding machine, a scutcher, a lap machine or the like is divided into individual strips which are then passed to a multi-needle sewing machine for application of longitudinal seams.

According to another embodiment of the process, the chenille yarn is produced by passing a fiber fleece in its full width to a multi-needle sewing machine for application of longitudinal seams whereupon the sewn fiber fleece is divided by severing it longitudinally between adjacent seams.

Both modifications of the process of the invention are well adapted for operation in conjunction with a webforming machine whereby chenille yarn or the like is obtained in a single continuous operation.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a terminal roller 4 of a carding machine, a scutcher, a lapping machine or the like from which a fibrous web or fiber fleece 3 is pulled off. It is held in a taut condition by a brake '16. The web or fiber fleece 3 is divided into individual strips 1 by means of a web divider 6 of known construction which in the example illustrated comprises two divided rollers the individual discs of which are meshed. The web strips are then passed through a rubbing device 7 comprising two rubbing leathers (17 arranged in the usual manner for transverse reciprocal movement in the direction of the double arrow. The individual strips 1 are rounded by the rubbing device 7 as shown at 1a and are fed through guide channels 8 to needles .15 of a multi-needle sewing machine generally designated 24. :The finished chenille yarn I18 leaving the sewing machine *24 is wound on bobbins 9 which may be fixedly mounted on driven shafts (not shown) to draw the strips 1, 1a through the various stations of the apparatus, but it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that there are many ways in which the material may be conveyed through the apparatus.

FIG. 2 illustrates a preferred apparatus for performing a modification of the process of the invention. The terminal roller 4 of a web forming machine, or a roller on which a Web or fiber fleece previously formed has been wound, discharges a web 3 which is passed between reciprocating guide rollers '10 and past the needles 5 of a multi-needle sewing machine 14. At this stage, a plurality of seams 2 is applied, so that a fleece 3a is formed. The web or fiber fleece 3 is then trained around an idler guide roller 1d and passed over a divider "12 which in the example illustrated is a knife roller and which severs the web or fiber fleece 3a longitudinally into individual strips '1 by cutting it between the scams 2. The individual strips 1 of the sewn fiber fleece are drawn off by bobbins 9 on which they are wound.

FIG. 3 illustrates a preferred form of knife roller 12 for use in the apparatus of FIG. 2. Several double-cup V shaped circular cutters 121 are spacedly arranged on a common shaft 122.

FIG. 4 shows a chenille yarn 18 of the invention as produced by the apparatus of either FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 and comprising a fibrous web or fiber fleece base having a central straight longitudinal seam 2. Such a chenille yarn will be obtained when the strips 1a or the web 3a are passed under the needles 15 or 5, respectively, of the sewing machines 24 or 14 in a substantially constant spatial relationship of needles and web. Such an arrangement of the seam is satisfactory when the individ ual fibers in the fleece 3 are either oriented at random in the apparatus producing the fleece such as in a scutcher, or are made to assume random orientation by a rubbing device as indicated in FIG. 1. In the case of random arrangement of the individual fibers, the seam 2 will anchor a majority of the individual fibers so as to prevent them from slipping out.

When the fibers are oriented in parallel in web 3 such as in a web or fiber fleece made on a carding machine or the like, and it is not desired to employ a rubbing device, the seam is preferably made to meander transversely of the longitudinal center line of the strip either by reciprocating the guide channels '8 of the sewing machine 24 of FIG. 1 or the guide rollers 10 of the sewing machine 14 of FIG. 2 or by transversely oscillating the respective sewing needles 15 or while the strips 1a or the Web Ba proper follows a constant straight path.

Depending on the amplitude of the oscillations of either the web or of the needles or sewing implements, the seam 2, as indicated in FIG. 5, may wander from edge to edge of the finished strip '1, or the seam may even form loops outside the edge of strip 1, as indicated in FIG. 6.

Special effects may be achieved by rhythmically compressing the web or fiber fleece 3 in the process illustrated in FIG. 2-. Such longitudinally alternating sections of varying thickness may be produced, for example, by employing somewhat eccentric driven guide rollers 10. A web 3a so produced, as it comes from the sewing machine 14 is illustrated in FIG. 7. Transverse filling-like reinforcement threads v13 may further be embedded so as to yield a fiber fleece 3b with a view to increasing the transverse tensile strength of the chenille yarn where such strength is required for special applications. Such a fleece is shown in FIG. 8.

Since it is well known to produce non-woven fabrics by superimposing strata of a plurality of fiber types, it is apparent that chenille yarn comprising a plurality of layers of diflerent color or of different types of fibers may be readily produced by the process of the invention, by either employing such a composite web fiber fleece or non-woven fabric as the starting material for the process of the invention, or by feeding a plurality of individual layers to the apparatus used for performing the process of the invention and combining them in one or several of the steps thereof.

The chenille yarn of the invention may be further processed by unwinding it from bobbins 9 in any convenient manner. It will be apparent, though, to those skilled in the art that the chenille yarn produced by the process of the invention may be directly fed to a subsequent operation without intervening winding on bobbins.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosure relates only to preferred embodiments of the invention and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the examples of the invention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

'1. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn from a non-woven fibrous web by the separate steps of cutting said web into strips and sewing a plurality of seams on a sewing machine equipped with multiple sewing implements, the improvement comprising arranging the major part of the lfibers of said web substantially in a longitudinal direction of said web so as to form a fiber fleece.

2. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 1, wherein said step of cutting is accomplished before said step of sewing.

3. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 2, further comprising the step of rounding said strips before said seams are sewed therethrough.

4. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 3, wherein said step of rounding is accomplished by causing reciprocating movement of said strips.

5. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 4, wherein said reciprocating is performed over a path which exceeds the combined width of said strips.

6. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 1, wherein said step of sewing is accomplished in said web before said step of cutting.

7. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 6, further comprising the step of causing reciprocating movement of said Web across the path of said sewing implements.

8. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn from a non-woven fibrous web by the steps of sewing a plurali-ty of seams in said Web on a sewing machine equipped with multiple sewing implements and subsequently cutting said Web into strips, the improvement comprising arranging the major part of the fibers of said web substantially in a longitudinal direction of said web so as to form a fiber fleece, and causing continuous and transverse oscillating movement of said web with respect to said sewing implements.

9. In a process for manufacturing chenille yarn, the improvement as set forth in claim 8, wherein said oscillating is performed over a path which exceeds the width of said Web.

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